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Wright first entered professional wrestling after being noticed tending to a bar by wrestlers during the filming of the movie Over the Top. The wrestlers involved gave him the advice that, with his large body type and unique (tattooed) look, he should try seeking out Larry Sharpe and his Monster Factory to get into the business.[6]

In January 1992, he was repackaged as Papa Shango, a voodoo practitioner with an appearance reminiscent of the loa, Baron Samedi. The character debuted on the edition of February 8, 1992 of Superstars, defeating enhancement talentDale Wolfe.[9] The character carried a skull to the ring billowing smoke and could control arena lights, allowing for strange goings on in the ring, and later could "cast spells" to cause opponents pain and to make them vomit from afar.[10] Shango was thrust into the spotlight almost immediately, running in on the Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice main event at WrestleMania VIII.[11] Shango actually missed his cue to run in, hitting the ring late. The finish was supposed to be Sid getting disqualified because of Shango breaking up the pinfall attempt by Hogan after he hit the big leg drop. However, due to Shango getting to the ring late, Sid was forced to kick out of the legdrop to save the angle. Sid's manager, Harvey Wippleman then jumped on the apron, and the referee signalled for the disqualification at that point as Shango was just getting to the ring. The Ultimate Warrior then returned to the WWF by running to the ring and helping Hogan against Sid and Shango.

After WrestleMania, Sid and the Warrior were scheduled to begin a feud. However, Sid had previously failed a drug test and was let go by the WWF. The feud was then re-written with Shango instead of Sid, where he would cast voodoo spells on his opponent. Despite numerous segments being shown on television every week (Warrior vomiting, inexplicably bleeding,...), the angle went nowhere, as Warrior challenged Randy Savage for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam, apparently forgetting about Shango. Meanwhile, Shango defeated Tito Santana in a dark match at the event. When Shango was finally set to have a match with Warrior in November 1992, Warrior was released from WWF. However, Shango received a WWF World Heavyweight Title shot against Bret Hart on Saturday Night's Main Event, but was unsuccessful.[12] Wright's final PPV appearance as the Papa Shango character was at the 1993 Royal Rumble (where he was eliminated in under 30 seconds). He would appear in another pay-per-view dark match against Tito Santana at WrestleMania IX, with Santana getting the victory. Shango was seen infrequently on WWF television afterwards, and following a loss to "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in a 1993 King of the Ring qualifying match, he made two final televised appearances against enhancement talent in June and July 1993.

Wright's Papa Shango character was pilloried by fans, being voted the Worst Gimmick and the Most Embarrassing Wrestler in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards for 1992. Fin Martin of professional wrestling magazine Power Slam, in a 2013 article, wrote: "Shango and his curses were a total embarrassment. Fans exhaled loudly each time he appeared on screen. Shango bombed, and deservedly so."[13] Former opponent Bret Hart considered Shango to be possibly the second-worst idea in WWF history, after the Gobbledy Gooker. He said in 2014: "I remember watching [Shango] going, 'Ugh, that's awful. That's everything that pro wrestling should never try to be. That's fake'... I think Vince [McMahon] knew, when he did it."[14]

At the same time as he was wrestling as Papa Shango in the WWF, the WWF had a working agreement with USWA. As part of the agreement Papa Shango was sent to wrestle in USWA, where he won the Unified World Heavyweight Championship for a second time.[7] Winning the title actually upset him, as he felt it was only done to sell to the predominantly black crowd, and after complaining to management he dropped the belt to Owen Hart. He left the company soon after and returned to bar tending.[6]

Shortly after leaving, Wright had verbally agreed to join World Championship Wrestling to serve as the enforcer for the New World Order, but then mysteriously never heard from WCW afterwards. Wright then learned that WCW signed Virgil to be the NWO's enforcer by watching WCW Monday Nitro at home with his wife, and that they had signed him for less than what they offered Wright. Wright stated that while he was bitter by this episode, it allowed him to create The Godfather character, and as a result was one of the few WWF talents to stay loyal to the company during the Monday Night Wars.[18]

Wright was asked to return in 1997, with the original plans being for him to revive the Papa Shango character.[5] Instead he returned as Kama, now billed under his full name, Kama Mustafa, with less emphasis on his shoot fighting background. He was placed into the Nation of Domination, which was in the process of becoming an all black group and on the verge of feuding with the all whiteDisciples of Apocalypse as well as the all Latino group Los Boricuas; the latter two groups were part of the Nation of Domination at one point and all three feuded with each other as part of a "gang warfare" angle the WWF came up with. Mustafa became increasingly known as "The Godfather" of the Nation, a moniker which would eventually become his official ring name in 1998. He stood with the Nation when Rocky Maivia became the leader shortly after Wrestlemania XIV, standing with Maivia (who officially became The Rock around that time), Mark Henry, D'Lo Brown, and later Owen Hart after he joined the stable in the summer of 1998.

After The Nation split up, Wright had his most successful run with the company under the hugely popular persona of The Godfather. The Godfather character would be constantly surrounded by "hoes" – usually girls from local strip clubs. He would offer his opponents the right to use these girls for "any purpose" if they would forfeit the match to him. The gimmick was highly popular with audiences, and he defeated Goldust for the WWF Intercontinental Championship in April 1999.[19] He was Owen Hart's scheduled opponent for the title at Over the Edge; Hart was fatally injured during a live stunt prior to the match's time. The Godfather was scheduled to lose the title to Hart's character, "The Blue Blazer," that night. The Godfather would instead lose the title to Hart's tag team partner Jeff Jarrett a week later. On the March 16, 2000 episode of WWF SmackDown, he picked up the biggest win of his career, when he defeated the WWF ChampionTriple H, due to interference from Shane McMahon and Big Show.

As Wright was working the Godfather gimmick the WWF began airing WWF SmackDown! on UPN, drawing the attention of the Parents Television Council (PTC), which claimed the WWF and their programming was inappropriate for prime time television. One of the PTCs complaints was the Godfather's pimp gimmick, and during the ensuing controversies the WWF higher ups began imposing restrictions on what he could say and do, hurting his popularity.[6] During this time The Godfather became something of a tag team specialist, forming teams with Val Venis, Mark Henry, and D'Lo Brown.

With the WWF in general being hurt by the PTC's attention, they decided to mock the controversy by creating Right to Censor, a conservative group of wrestlers led by Steven Richards. The Godfather faced Bull Buchanan, Richards' first group member, in which he agreed to give up pimping if he lost. Buchanan defeated The Godfather, who promptly joined the stable and renounced his former ways. He began wearing a shirt and tie to the ring (as was part of Right to Censor's gimmick), became known as The Goodfather, and began teaming with Buchanan. The duo won the World Tag Team Championship[20] one time before the stable disbanded as the Invasionstoryline began.

The Godfather had a short revival in 2002, claiming to have gone "legitimate" and formed a legal escort agency. It lasted around four months, but never caught on in the way the original did. Shortly after the 2002 brand split, he was sent to SmackDown! and turned into a heel by dropping the hoes and feuding with Val Venis for a short time. In April 2002, The Godfather who believed to be frustrated after not getting drafted, came out during the "dark match" portion of SmackDown! to attack Val Venis and told the fans to "Stick it!", which got him suspended from May to August 2002.[2]

The Godfather's final two appearances reverted him back to his old persona, with the Ho Train in tow. He interrupted the "wedding" of Billy and Chuck on September 12, 2002, which helped lead the tag team into admitting that the entire gay marriage was a sham and just an attempt to get media attention. The Godfather appeared again the following month on Raw during the "Raw Roulette" event, where he offered Jerry Lawler and Stevie Richards a night out with his Ho Train to the victor of their match. Wright was released from the WWE in December 2002 and briefly retired from professional wrestling.[3]

In 2005, he appeared at Vengeance, interrupting Viscera's marriage proposal to Lilian Garcia in order to show Viscera what he would be missing out on if he asked Lillian to marry him.[2] Viscera dropped the proposal and dumped Garcia for The Godfather's hos.[2]

On July 13, 2007, Wright returned to the ring for the first time in five years after his retirement, where he reunited with D'Lo Brown to defeat Jeremy and Bubba Blanchard in McMinnville, Oregon.[21]

Wright reappeared on WWE television during the McMahon family portrait during Raw's 15th Anniversary on December 10, 2007, where he let Hornswoggle join his Ho Train.[2]

Wright made a short appearance as The Godfather at the 2013 Royal Rumble as entrant #17. He was eliminated immediately by Dolph Ziggler. Wright made an appearance on the January 6, 2014 Old School edition of Raw alongside numerous other legends and Hall of Famers.[23]

Wright made a rare in-ring segment along with his longtime friend Val Venis and Dexter Verity in Future Stars of Wrestling, where he promised to bring his hoes if Venis and Verity would have succeeded defending their tag team titles.[26]